This December Front Table is rather a surprise. As we head into the holiday season and toward the end of the year, the publishers usually slow down on releasing new books, preferring to concentrate on marketing rather than production. This year, for whatever reason, they have changed their ways so we have a Table full of exciting new titles, perfect for gift giving or long winter night reading.
Anglophiles and other fans of literary non-fiction get to rejoice over Peter Ackroyd’s latest, Thames: The Biography. A native of London, Ackroyd’s work has always focused on his beloved home city. Although he began as a poet and novelist, his most recent works-an some of his best books-have been non-fiction “biographies” of London and England. His new book is an homage to the river that built London. At only 215 miles, the Thames is the shortest of the world’s most famous waterways but it has witnessed such historic events as Julius Caesar’s invasion and Ann Boleyn’s trip to her beheading. It has served as the inspiration for Turner’s paintings and Handel’s Water Music. And it has been the lifeline of English commerce since Neolithic times. Ackroyd regales us with its long history (including modern attempts to control and clean the river), walks us along its banks to towns less famous than London, and provides us with a small sample of the many poems and stories about England’s great river. ($40.00)
Some readers will find ‘exciting’ a serious understatement in reference to Chilean author Roberto Bola�o’s posthumously published masterwork, 2666. Reviewers are using phrases like “define an entire literature” and “a landmark in what’s possible in the novel as a form” and comparing this remarkable book to Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past. At 900 dense pages, this complicated five-part novel is definitely challenging on every level. Parts of the novel revolve around a fictitious German author who seems to have lived in a Mexican border town called Santa Teresa and a small group of critics dedicated to his work. A large section is devoted to an unflinching investigation of a series of gruesome murders in Santa Teresa based on true events in Ciudad Juarez. Sometimes raunchy and always dark-sometimes darkly humorous-2666 is not for the faint of heart but will be incredibly rewarding for the intrepid reader. (Available in hardcover or as a three-volume, slipcased paperback, either at $30.00)
Ooh, look, Jon Fasman has a new book out, The Unpossessed City. His debut novel, The Geographer’s Library was one of my staff picks when it came out in 2005 so I’m delighted to see his name back on the Table. This time he takes us to Russia with Jim Vilatzer, a thirty-something, slacker type deeply in debt to Serbian mobsters. Realizing that working in his parents’ Maryland restaurant is not going to pay off the bad guys, Jim takes a job in Moscow where the Russian he learned from his grandparents comes in handy. Soon he is drawn into a web of corrupt Russian officials, shady biotech scientists and hostile CIA agents. The plot is exciting and the characters well-imagined, but it’s the author’s depiction of contemporary Russia that makes this thriller a stand out. Fasman has a real talent for making readers feel like we’re in the middle of the action. ($25.95)
If you’re one of the many people who can’t get enough of “I moved to France” stories, try Mark Greenside’s I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany. In 1991, Greenside got dragged-much against his will-to France by a soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend. He gave her a list of impossible (and hilarious) conditions for the house he would consider renting which she immediately fulfilled, so he wound up spending several months in the part of Brittany called Finistere which translates to “end of the world.” He fell in love with the village and the people and eventually bought a house there. Greenside’s book is a relief not only because it is not set in Provence but also because it’s incredibly funny. He laughs at his inability to speak decent French, his struggles to understand everyday tasks, and his own cynical attitudes contrasted with the locals’ salt of the earth goodness. This light and entertaining bagatelle is a great midwinter mood lifter. ($24.00)
Daniel Everett’s new book, Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle is a gift to all of us who are fascinated with language. Back in 1977, Everett went to live as a Christian missionary with the Piraha tribe of Brazil, intending to learn their language and translate the Bible for them. He soon became fascinated with the tribe’s world view (their language is not related to any other and lacks some concepts which were believed to be universal to all humans) and eventually adopted many of their ways of thinking instead of the other way round. This book is an interesting combination of memoir, adventure story and linguistic case study. Some of the later chapters on language may be a little technical for the casual reader but the big ideas of how language, thought and culture are connected are easy to follow especially since they are illustrated with exciting incidents from his jungle life. Fighting off snakes and dealing with near deadly cases of malaria were daily intrusions into his attempts to understand a unique language and people. ($26.95)
In this season of visiting relatives it may be time to take up celebrated Mexican author, Carlos Fuentes’ new collection of short fiction, Happy Families. In some of these stories that title can be taken literally. In others, irony or even sarcasm may apply. These pieces examine those ties that bind in a variety of Mexican settings, some contemporary, some historical, some in the houses of the poor, one even in the presidential palace. Renowned for his brilliant use of language, this collection is another example of Fuentes long fascination with the difficult and sometimes tragic lives of his countrymen. ($26.00)
Ya’ll have a great holiday!
